Running Scared
by AshMaSHHHH
Summary: DALLY/OC first story When did Jessie become everybodies everything, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a best friend, a bartender and now love intrest.
1. prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise. **

**Prologue**

"_**I have outlived that care that curries public favour or dreads the public frown...let the hand of law strike me down if it will, but I ask that my story be heard and considered"**_

_**Ned Kelly**____**– bushranger**_

I glared at Dallas Winston from my spot across the bar from were he was sitting. He would look up at me every few minutes from his conversation with a leggy blonde, _Bastard always tries to make me madder._

Ollie looked up at me from where he was sitting at the bar, colouring.

"Mama, why you looking mad?" he looked up at me with big blue eyes

"Not mad love" I picked up his empty glass and placed it in the tub with the rest of the dirty glasses.

"Why is Dally holding that lady?" another innocent question

"Because…" _oh crap_ the blonde was sitting in Dallas's lap now, my four year old wanted to know why.

"Because that lady, you see her there Ollie?" my little sister had slid onto the stool next to Oliver. He nodded, his shaggy blonde hair falling in his eyes

"She's real scared, and Dally's just calming her down". Ollie looked from me to my sister before accepting this

"Like when I have a night mare?"

"Just like that bub" I smiled at them, good save by Evie. Throwing my dishrag over my shoulder and wiping my hands on my apron, I picked my son up off the stool, getting him out of there before Dallas did anything that couldn't be passed off as 'comforting' the girl.

There's an old cot out the back of the bar used for Ollie. I laying him down, he snuggled down into the covers. Evie followed behind me, carrying his colouring book and crayons, placing them on the small table.

"Night Auntie Evie" he yawned, stretching his arms above his head "Night Mama"

"Night Ollie" Evie grabbed her apron off a hook on the wall, tying it around her waist before walking back into the smoky noise of Jay's Diner.

"Night baby boy" I kissed his head, sitting down in the seat next to his cot.

His eye lids began to droop, and he began to squirm deeper under the covers, pulling his teddy tighter in his arms and putting his thumb in his mouth

"Hey I'm not too late to say good night?" Dallas's booming voice filled the small room

"Dally!" Ollie was up and on his feet in the bed, his teddy falling to the floor

"Obviously not, I nearly had him down Dal" I shot at him, picking the teddy off the ground and holding it to my chest. He was always doing this, coming in when the kid was nearly asleep, ruining all the hard work I had laid down getting the kid in bed in the first place

"That's great" He had Ollie in his arms now, spinning him around "You didn't think that I wouldn't come say 'night?" he asked. Raising his eyebrows at me

"Nope, I knew you'd come" Ollie pushed his hair out of his eyes, the way he did it was an exact copy of the way Dally pushed his own blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Good kid" he pulled the chair out and sat down with one arm, his other arm placing Ollie on the cot. Ollie crawled back under the covers, a big grin plastered on his face

"Well, I may as well get back to work then" I scowled at Dallas, letting my face soften to a smile to kiss my son's forehead again "night Ollie"

"G'night Mama" he smiled again, he liked it when Dallas sat with him until he was asleep.

The room was in full swing when I got back to behind the bar, Evie was chatting to a couple of boys sitting at the end of the bar.

"Jessie, can you get that table?" a table packet with rowdy boys was signalling for drinks. When they were all happily chugging back beers, Dallas was leaning in the door way behind the bar

"Winston" I pushed past him, sticking my head into the room to check Ollie was fast asleep

"What's your problem Carter?" he followed me as I moved past him, grabbing a plastic tub to clear a now vacated table.

When I didn't respond to him, he took the tub from my hands, placing it on the table before holding my shoulders so I couldn't walk away. The spot on the wall just above his left shoulder got very interesting all of a sudden.

"What's your problem Carter?" his index finger was on my cheek, moving my face so I had to look at him.

"You can't just do that Dal" I snapped. Forcing my way out of his arms, taking back the tub

"Do what?" he was looking confused, his normally ice blue eyes burning with anger

"Come marching in there when I've just put Ollie to bed." I turned to face him, hands on my hips "you cant just spend a week in jail and then come marching back in here like every things okay" it clicked to him now, I could see the cogs in his mind turning as he pieced together why I was so angry

"It's not okay?" his big hands covered mine on my hips. Normally I would have broken by now, given in to him, only to have him do the same thing in a few weeks time.

"No it's not Dal." I turned away from him picking up the last glass and placing it in the tub "Webb came back this week. The one time I need you Dal and you're not here" I picked up the tub, carrying it back to the kitchen on the other side of the bar. Dallas was hot on my heels, when I stopped to set down the tub, he pushed up the sleeves of my dress, having caught site of the bruise left there.

"I should just kill that bastard" his voice was cold. This was the Dallas I could deal with. The Dallas that read to my son freaked me out a little

"And where would that leave us?" I frowned as he ran his fingers clumsily along my arm

"A lot fucking happier"

"Charming Dal"

Webb was Ollie's biological father, my ex, although we chose not to acknowledge him in my life, He'd moved away when I got pregnant, I didn't know where because I didn't want to know. I wasn't sad that he'd left me. It just saved me from having to leave town when he found out about the baby. People were shocked that I gave my life away at fifteen to have an illegitimate baby when I could have gotten rid of it. I couldn't get rid of it though. The kid was half mine after all, and when Webb left town, Ollie was all mine.

"He still in town?" he looked down at me, and for the millionth time, I wished I wasn't so short.

"Nope" I wasn't going into it with Dallas now, he'd find out eventually, because Evie knew, and Evie would tell Steve who would tell Dallas, who would come back and start a fight with me about it

So I did what I always did when Dallas had that uncomfortable look on his face where he knew that we'd have to have a grown-up conversation about something; I walked away.

A/N: so, this is the prologue, I re-did it, because it bugged me and I didn't like how I made Dallas act, and I understand that the original (if you read it) was a little confusing. It confused me when I read it again. So I hope it's a little better, because I certainly think it is. I changed it because it gave me the shits. So let me know what you think yeah. This is just the prologue. I should have Chapter one up soon.

I know that Jay's was a diner in the book, but where I live, just about every place you go to eat has a bar. Hell, even the bakery in town has a liquor licence- no kidding, so I chucked a bar in. though in story land, the bar bits only open at night. Just so ya know. 

*I'm Australian, and I think that I've taken out any thing that's too Aussie, but if there's anything you don't understand, give me a yell

X Ash


	2. Chapter One: Drunken night, when we met

**Chapter One**

"_**GOOD FRIENDS will be there to take your drink away from you when they think you've had enough- but your BEST FRIENDS will look at you tripping over your own two feet and say 'Bitch, drink the rest of that. You know we don't waste that kinda shit.'"**_

Dallas was asleep on the couch, his shirt unbuttoned and the fly of his jeans undone. Jess shook her head and carried her sleeping son into his bedroom, laying him in his bed and tucking him in. When she walked back into the sitting room, Dallas was rubbing his head; his eyes had that far-away look they got when he'd been drinking. She went to walk past him, but he caught her hand and pulled her down onto the couch, straddling his legs

"Hey babe" his grin was more lopsided than usual

"Hey Dal" she gave him a tired smile, then scrunched up her nose when she caught a whiff of him, "You stink Dal, what have you been doing tonight?" other than the stink of whisky and tobacco, he stank like he'd rolled in some thing, his eyes lit up like a little kids

"Me and Shep" she cut him off before he could even get into it

"On second thoughts I don't wanna know. If you're even thinking about coming to bed, you better have a shower love" she stood up again, this time he followed her. Grabbing her hand again and pulling her back into his chest

"Wanna come with?" he whispered into her neck, Jess shivered, but Dallas managed to ruin the romance by staggering a little to the left, leaning heavily on her for support.

"Come on, lets get you cleaned up and into bed" Jess wrapped her arms around Dallas' waist, trying to support his weight as best she could. Helping him stagger to the bathroom, she shoved him into the shower, only pulling off his leather jacket and boots before turning the water on.

"Baby my clothes are all wet." He looked at her from where he was leaning against the shower wall.

"I'm going to have to as good as burn them to get that stink off, so what's a little water going to matter?" she was sitting on the bathroom sink making sure he didn't slip and hurt him self. The water seemed to be sobering Dallas a little, he managed to peel off his shirt and jeans before throwing them at Jessie. The wet clothes hit her in the face, she heard him laugh as she wrestled with them to get free. When she pulled them away, he was facing her, leaning against the shower wall, water running down his now completely naked body, his boxer shorts balled in his hand. She shook her head at him, normally she would have joined him in the shower with out a second thought, the sight of him naked always made her heart go a million miles an hour. But tonight she was tired, it had been a long night, Oliver was coming down with a cold, and Dallas was drunk.

"I'm going to bed Dal, night" she left him standing in the shower pouting like a little kid.

Back in her room, she pulled off her boots and dress and left them lying on the floor. When she was snuggled into bed in her favourite pyjamas, Dallas padded into the room, collapsing half on top of her, still dripping wet, and sound asleep. Jess let out a sigh, so many girls she knew would kill their boy friends if they did this to them, but Jess was one of the few women that could hack being with a cowboy. Squirming around under Dallas's bulk, she got the top sheet to cover any bits of Dallas not appropriate for her son to see, she fell asleep, her subconscious drifting back to the night Dallas had started chasing her.

XXX

New Years Eve at Jay's Bar was one of those 'You-had-to-be-there' events, where even the toughest Greasers in Tulsa had been known to get up on a table and dance, the prissiest girls making out with boys they wouldn't give a side ways glance any other day, and the owner Jules would let her hair down and shout the bar a round of drinks. Dallas Winston found him self sitting at the end of the bar, dateless, with a feeling he didn't recognise sitting in his stomach. He let his thoughts wander to the Curtis house, where he knew he would find Darryl looking completely exhausted, even while sleeping, Soda and Ponyboy would be out on dates, Johnny was heading home for the night the last time Dallas had seen him, Two-bit was out of town with his Mum and sister, and Steve was across the room from where Dallas was sitting, with a pretty bar maid straddling his lap, making her giggle, and making it damn hard for her to do what she was meant to be doing

"I'll kill that boy." Jules snarled,

"Come on Ma, you never minded where Old Stevie put his hands before, why start now?" Dallas looked up and caught the smiling eye of Jules's oldest daughter Jess, Her curly blonde hair was hanging in her eyes no matter how many times she wiped it away,

"I couldn't give a damn where he puts his hands when it ain't on my clock, go tell your sister to cool it" Jules called to her daughter as she walked away, tray of drinks balanced on her hip. The same unruly blonde curls held off her face by a ruber band pony tail

"My pleasure" Dallas heard the girl mutter, grabbing a handful of ice. Dallas shifted in the seat, a grin tugging at the sides of his mouth. As ice cubes rained down on Steve and Evie, Dallas turned to see a small boy, with a folded piece of paper in his mouth, trying to climb up onto the bar stool next to Dallas's. When he slipped, Dallas instinctively grabbed the back of the kid's shirt, pulling him up onto the seat. The kid looked up at Dallas with bright blue eyes and a smile

"Mamma's being bad." He said, nodding towards where Jess was doubled over laughing, Evie and Steve glaring at her

"She's you're mama?" Dallas scowled down at the kid

"Yeah, we live with Nana and Auntie Evie." The kid nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world

"Hey there baby, what can I get cha?" Jess's voice called from the other side of the bar, with out looking up Dallas called back

"You can get us a room if you wanna get out of this shit hole" he smirked up from under his blonde hair

"I wasn't talking to you" she handed a plastic cup to the little boy "And if you keep swearing around my son I don't think I'll be talking to you at all in the near future." She smiled, ruffled the kids hair and walked away, her cowboy boots clicking on the floor

"I don't like kids" Dallas scowled down at the kid who looked up at him

"Neither do I" Ollie smiled, Dallas shook his head and watched Jess pull a beer for a guy in a flannelette shirt and work boots.

"Where did the kid go?" Dallas looked up from the pool table in the middle of the room. Jess was handing a family a meal, tucking the tip in her apron, she turned to Dallas

"In bed, its ten o'clock" she took the half empty beer from the wooden edge of the pool table where the condensation on the outside of the glass was leaving a ring on the wood. Placing it on a coaster, she looked up at him from under thick dark lashes. "You need anything else?" They were standing awful close, barely a foot separated them, when he shuffled closer and took one hand off the pool cue he was leaning on, she smiled and stepped backwards, making her way back to the kitchens.

"I'll catch ya round Dal." And with that she turned on her heel and walked away from him. If she had allowed herself to look back she would have seen Dallas Winston raising his eyebrows and watching intently as she walked away.


End file.
